Judge Stops Transfer|of Ebola Waste

ST. LOUIS (CN) – A St. Louis city judge prevented an infectious waste transfer station from accepting materials contaminated with the Ebola virus. Circuit Judge David L. Dowd entered a mutually agreed upon order that Stericycle Inc. would not accept the waste at its north city site. As part of the Oct. 17 order, brought about by a lawsuit initiated by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, Stericycle agreed not to accept the waste and stated that it has never accepted Ebola-contaminated waste. Stericycle on Oct. 8 received special permits from the federal government to transport the Ebola-infected material. In his lawsuit seeking to stop the action, Koster cited previous safety concerns at the Stericycle site. The lawsuit cited several instances in which Stericycle failed to properly handle other types of infectious waste. “A facility that failed to appropriately handle ordinary medical waste should not be trusted to handle the Ebola virus,” Koster said in a statement.